Chickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness is a 2022 animated movie based on a series of graphic novels by Chris Grine.
The story deals with Chickenhare, a young man who is half-hare and half-chicken. Chickenhare wants to be an adventurer like his father, but he feels burdened by his hybrid status. After failing a ceremonial test to become an royal adventurer, Chickenhare decides to find the Hamster of Darkness to prove himself. Accompanied by his sarcastic turtle servant Abe, and new friend, skunk explorer Meg, Chickenhare is on a quest to stop his evil uncle Lapin from claming the artifact himself.
This movie has the following tropes:
- The Ace: Meg is an adventurer, knows ten martial arts, can weaponize her powerful skunk scent, and has a good amount of self-worth.
- Action Girl: Meg is a seasoned adventurer who is good with a whip, and she also has training in karate, Kung-Fu, Kendo, and seven other martial arts, and has powerful musk glands.
- Adaptational Species Change: In the graphic novel, Meg is a Horned Humanoid of mysterious origins.
- And the Adventure Continues: Though Chickenhare earns the right to be accepted into the Royal Adventurer Society, he refuses, and goes along with his friends to become independent adventurers.
- All of the Other Reindeer: The three protagonists suffered from isolation from their peers in one way or another.
- Chickenhare was discriminated by the kingdom because he was a half-hare and half-chicken boy rather than a full animal.
- Meg was bullied as a kid because she was a skunk. She actually put a cork on herself and bathed twice a day to try to get friends, to no avail.
- Abe has no organic shell, with the one that he's wearing being given to him by an uncle who loved him enough to give it to Abe as an inheritance.
- Lapin claims that being bullied and not taken seriously due to his crooked ear was his Start of Darkness. By now, however, nobody has sympathy for his plight (not helped because he attacks others due to traits beyond their control).
- Apocalyptic Log: Parodied by Abe when he and Chickenhare leave their kingdom on a little boat.
- Ass Shove: Meg put a cork on herself to prevent her spray from coming out for three years. Her new friends wince, guessing correctly that it must have hurt.
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: All of the characters are animals who walk around barefoot, but most of them are otherwise fully clothed. Lampshaded by the subplot about Chickenhare using boots that look like hare paws to hide his chicken feet.
- Be Yourself: The Aesop of the movie is to learn to accept your differences as something that makes you unique rather than different. Meg learned this lesson as a child in her backstory, and encourages Chickenhare to learn it throughout the movie. It sinks in by the end.
- Bully Turned Buddy: Lance and Whitey, who evolve from pushing Chickenhare around in school to joining his posse when he battles Lapin's forces at the climax.
- Cain and Abel: Peter is the Abel as he just wants to be a good king and father to his son, while Lapin is Cain due to his desire to kill his brother for the throne.
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: Chickenhare is the character name and the Hamster of Darkness is the noun.
- Deadpan Snarker: 98% of Abe’s lines have him snarking about the chaos and craziness around the trio. Meg also gets a couple of snarky lines in.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones:
- One of Lapin's goons is Luther, a gorilla who brings his son with him at all times. Despite his work as a thug, Luther loves his son very much.
- Averted with Lapin himself, who attempts to kill his brother and nephew.
- Evil Uncle: The main villain of the story is the Chickenhare’s uncle, Lapin.
- Experienced Protagonist: Meg, one of the main characters, is trained in ten martial arts and was already a seasoned adventurer by the time she met Chickenhare and Abe.
- Feet-First Introduction: The first thing the audience sees of Meg are her feet resting on top of a table as she asks Chickenhare if he needs help.
- Foot Focus:
- Chickenhare gets lots of focus on his chicken feet to reflect his insecurity about being a half-chicken and half-hare being.
- Meg gets almost as many foot-close-ups as Chickenhare in the movie. She even has a Feet-First Introduction when she first appears.
- Foul Waterfowl: One of Lapin's goons is a Mandarin duck named Barry Goldfarb, though he's mostly evil in a harmless way.
- Freakiness Shame: Chickenhare is ashamed of having chicken legs and feathers, which he covers with clothes and fake hare feet. He ultimately gets over it by the end of the film, and sheds his disguise.
- Good Parents: Peter is a great father to Chickenhare, adopting him despite his appearance and always looking out for his best interest.
- Handy Feet: Chickenhare learns to use his chicken feet to his advantage to grab things, such as weapons and ledges to hang off of.
- Happily Adopted: Chickenhare has a loving relationship with Peter after being adopted by the latter. Making his father proud and be like him is one of the goals that Chickenhare has throughout the movie.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: The main focus on part of the Be Yourself lesson.
- Chickenhare’s chicken and hare halves endow him with incredible agility, his chicken feet are practically hands in their own right, his feathers can pick locks or be used to make opponents sneeze, and his massive ears combined with his feathers and wings, allow him a form of flight.
- Abe’s removable shell allows him to use it as a sled, or a surfboard used to conceal items such as the various hats he wears or to hide his friends, or as a shield against armed opponents.
- Meg’s skunk spray is very useful. She can clear out rooms with stink, blast away obstacles with her musk’s massive amount of explosive force, and is capable of making it potent enough to stun the undead.
- The power to control a million ghost hamsters doesn’t seem useful at first until you see what they do during the final act. They can come together as a massive monster, overwhelm foes through sheer number, are small enough to get through tight spaces, are incredibly fast and inventive, such as making the traps of the Royal Adventure Society course extremely deadly, and best yet, the user is capable of controlling them without the scepter.
- Hide Your Otherness: Chickenhare uses fake rabbit feet, a hat, and a jacket to hide his chicken features. He gets rid of them as he accepts his chicken half.
- I Have This Friend: Meg explains her backstory by stating that she had a fellow skunk friend named "Peg" who had strong musk and trained in ten martial arts to control her anger. Both Chickenhare and Abe clearly see that Meg is talking about herself.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Chickenhare says the phrase verbatim while he's complaining about people treating him as a freak because of his hybrid species.
- I Just Want to Have Friends: Meg states that she doesn't want payment, but she's willing to help Chickenhare and Abe on their quest if they become her friends. She's very happy when Chickenhare tells her she can stay as long as she likes.
- Killer Gorilla: One of Lapin's underlings is Luther, a gorilla sent to kill Chickenhare and Abe. Unfortunately for him, Meg's mastery of ten martial arts means that she's more than a match for him.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Lapin kicks Chickenhare into the pit below the grounds after Chickenhare saves him from falling to death. But the rope bridge he’s climbing burns apart, sending him free-falling out the pit as the Scepter explodes. While Chickenhare manages to fly to safety, Lapin falls toward the explosion, killing him.
- Lovable Coward: Abe spends a lot of time complaining about the danger that Chickenhare and Meg get him into.
- Cowardly Lion: However, he stays with them throughout the adventure, and even helps them get out of trouble when he can.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: True to his name, Chickenhare is a cross between the two species. It causes him a lot of angst until he learns to accept himself.
- Not Quite Flight: Chickenhare can use the feathers of his arms and ears to soar in the air in a gliding fashion. However, in the end, he is shown to be able to propel himself by flapping his ears, even gaining height, so he might be able to fly indeed, but not launch from the ground.
- Oh, Crap!: When Meg tries to convince the Pigmies that Chickenhare is a god, the tribe leader buys it and has a feast prepared for the trio. Unfortunately, after the feast, they’ll be thrown into a volcano for their "god," Santoro the Stoic (a rock with a pig nose carved onto it.)
- Quicksand Sucks: While traveling on the desert, Chickenhare gets stuck in quicksand. Though Meg saves him, Chickenhare loses his fake rabbit feet, causing her to see his real legs.
- Removable Shell: Justified. Abe was born without a shell and wears one that belonged to a deceased relative.
- Royals Who Actually Do Something: Chickenhare's father was an explorer before he became king, and Chickenhare wants to follow in his footsteps.
- Serious Business: The kingdom has entrance tests for adventuring attended by hundreds of rapt citizens and throws parades for those who discover artifacts. Archaeological achievements are almost a prerequisite for being king.
- Shield Surf: Abe removes his shell and uses its pieces so that he, Chickenhare, and Meg can slide down the mountain.
- Shout-Out: Chickenhare wears an Indiana Jones-style fedora and jacket throughout most of the movie to hide his chicken parts, but he has to give them up to accept his true nature.
- Smelly Skunk: Being a skunk, Meg can spray out her musk when the odds are against her. This is seen when she takes out a bar of criminals by herself with her musk, blasts away a group of Pigmies away from herself and Abe, and is used in the final act against the ghost hamsters produced by the Hamster of Darkness scepter. However, it takes Meg a few hours to "recharge", meaning she has to use it sparingly. Quickly played for drama when Meg tells her backstory to Abe and Chickenhare.
- The Smurfette Principle: The film has only two female characters with speaking roles: Meg and a librarian who has only a few lines in one scene.
- So Proud of You: Peter voices his pride in Chickenhare when the latter is about to go in another adventure.
- Sour Supporter: Abe complains a lot, but that doesn't stop him from supporting Chickenhare in his quest.
- Sweet and Sour Grapes: The moral, as spelled out by Meg in her story, is that once you accept who you are, you don't need external validation. But of course, once Chickenhare embraces who he is, he gets external validation as well.
- Technicolor Magic: The Hamster of Darkness materializes ghostly hamsters that glow green and will serve the user.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Chickenhare visits Lapin in prison, naively hoping his uncle will give him some pointers on how to find the Hamster of Darkness. Lapin uses the opportunity to steal one of his nephew's feathers and use it to escape.
- Waif-Fu: Meg is a small skunk compared to Luther, and yet her martial arts training pays off: her blows can hurt him and a strong enough punch can send him flying with ease.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Chickenhare wants to follow his father's footsteps as an adventurer. His desire to get the Hamster of Darkness is based on honoring his father. Ironically, Peter loves Chickenhare for who he is.
- World of Funny Animals: Ranging from a hybrid between two species as the hero to pigmies who are literally pigs.
